Holliday v. Hobbs, 2014 Ark. 408

James Avery Holliday was convicted in 2009 of second-degree sexual assault and rape and sentenced to an aggregate 720 months; the Arkansas Court of Appeals affirmed on direct appeal.
In 2013 Holliday, pro se and incarcerated in Lincoln County, filed a habeas-corpus petition in Lincoln County Circuit Court.
Holliday alleged ineffective assistance of counsel, actual innocence, insufficient/contradictory evidence, prosecutorial use of perjured or unreliable testimony, and other trial errors (including admission of prior-bad-act evidence).
The circuit court dismissed the habeas petition; Holliday appealed to the Arkansas Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court reviewed whether the habeas petition alleged facial invalidity of the judgment or lack of jurisdiction — the only proper bases for habeas relief in Arkansas — and whether Holliday made a showing of probable cause by affidavit or other evidence.
The Court affirmed the dismissal, holding Holliday’s claims were not cognizable in habeas and he failed to show jurisdictional defect or facial invalidity of the judgment-and-commitment order.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether ineffective-assistance claim is cognizable in habeas	Holliday: counsel provided deficient advice and assistance at pretrial and trial	State: ineffective-assistance claims belong in Rule 37 postconviction, not habeas	Denied — ineffective-assistance claims are not cognizable in habeas; must use Rule 37
Whether trial errors and evidentiary rulings supply habeas relief	Holliday: trial errors and admission of unreliable evidence undermined conviction	State: trial errors do not implicate jurisdiction or facial invalidity	Denied — trial errors not cognizable in habeas
Whether sufficiency of the evidence supports habeas relief	Holliday: evidence was insufficient to sustain conviction	State: sufficiency challenges are for direct appeal or Rule 37, not habeas	Denied — sufficiency not a habeas ground
Whether petitioner showed jurisdictional defect or facial invalidity	Holliday: judgment invalid because he is actually innocent / convictions flawed	State: Holliday did not present affidavit or other probable-cause evidence of jurisdictional defect or facial invalidity	Denied — no showing of jurisdictional defect or facial invalidity; dismissal affirmed

Wesson v. Hobbs, 2014 Ark. 285 (per curiam) (habeas relief limited to facial invalidity or lack of jurisdiction)
Young v. Norris, 365 Ark. 219 (2006) (per curiam) (petitioner's burden to plead facial invalidity or lack of jurisdiction and show probable cause)
Green v. State, 2014 Ark. 30 (per curiam) (ineffective-assistance claims not cognizable in habeas; use Rule 37)
Tryon v. Hobbs, 2011 Ark. 76 (per curiam) (due-process and prosecutorial-misconduct claims are trial errors, not habeas grounds)
Chambliss v. State, 2014 Ark. 188 (per curiam) (failure to show jurisdictional defect or facial invalidity defeats habeas petition)